online ads

Tech giant will start tracking offline purchasing

(Newser) -
Google already tracks what you buy online; it's about to start tracking what you buy offline, too, the AP reports. The tech giant announced Tuesday it will start tracking money spent at merchants' brick-and-mortar stores by people who've clicked on those stores' digital ads. Google has access to...
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It just got harder to place advertising on phony content on the 2 platforms

(Newser) -
Mark Zuckerberg says fake news on Facebook didn't help tip the election in Donald Trump's favor, but that hasn't stopped the site, along with Google, from starting to address the issue. Although they're not directly taking on the fake news sites themselves, the two platforms are...
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They're among top ad providers to piracy sites: study

(Newser) -
Online piracy may come mostly through a seemingly neverending supply of torrent sites, but a new study is shining a light on the role mainstream online companies—namely, giants Google and Yahoo—have in supporting piracy. After all, even torrent sites need ads to survive, and many of their ads...
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Michael Wolff points out that, in the end, Facebook is just an ad-driven site

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"Facebook is not only on course to go bust, but will take the rest of the ad-supported Web with it." That's the bold statement Michael Wolff makes in the MIT Technology Review today, and he insists he's not exaggerating. In the end, Facebook is just another...
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Effort wasn't drawing in customers, says company

(Newser) -
Bad news for Facebook ahead of its IPO: General Motors, the third-biggest advertiser in the US, has decided to stop running paid ads on the site. GM execs have found the ads aren't very effective—a conclusion other advertisers have apparently reached as well, the Wall Street Journal reports....
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Friend Bing, get a few Farmville bucks

(Newser) -
Online advertisers are migrating ever more quickly toward a gold mine of eager, impressionable consumers: gamers on social networks. The preferred ad buy trades some sort of action—watching a video, becoming a fan of the company on Facebook—for a few units of the online currency used in those...
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Business Insider thinks savvy surfers can somehow de-creepify video site

(Newser) -
Chatroulette is an intriguing, innovative social networking/chat/video site with a huge problem: penises. A study says 13% of users are “perverts”—use your imagination—and that makes potential advertisers understandably skittish. If you think you can help solve the "penis problem," Nicholas Carlson of Silicon Alley...
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Ads will show up as 140-character blurbs in search results

(Newser) -
Twitter’s finally ready to unveil its ad service, and it’s going to look a heck of a lot like Google’s. Sources tell Peter Kafka of All Things Digital that Twitter intends to allow companies to place ads using a self-serve program, and that they’ll show up...
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Plummeting temperatures lead to marketing opportunities

(Newser) -
When the weather turns cold, retailers swing into action, targeting ads toward areas where the mercury's dropping—even in normally temperate markets like Florida. “Marketing into a situation that's favorable for your product” is the key, one analyst tells Advertising Age . Take Campbell’s Soup, which uses a “...
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Image of cracked windshield superimposed over truck accident victim

(Newser) -
An unfortunate juxtaposition has the sports blogosphere abuzz: As Sports Illustrated was reporting the death of Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry this morning, the website's advertising apparatus was employing a special effect on behalf of Liberty Mutual's car insurance offerings. The effect? A shattered windshield. "The cracked windshield...
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Troupe threatens to sue Republican over pirated video footage

(Newser) -
Republican Chris Christie holds a razor-thin lead over incumbent Jon Corzine in the New Jersey governor's race, and now he has five more potential opponents—the members of Monty Python, who are considering suing the former US Attorney for violating their copyright. An online ad the campaign swiftly yanked from...
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(Newser) -
If online ads are the future of political campaigning, then a legal snafu in the St. Petersburg mayoral race bears watching. Florida election officials have ruled that one candidate’s Google and Facebook ads violate state election laws because they don’t clearly state who paid for the ad, the...
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Police believe three hotel murders are related

(Newser) -
Authorities believe a man suspected in attacks that left one woman dead and two others shaken in New England hotels found his victims through Craigslist, ABC News reports. Julissa Brisman, who advertised massage-therapy services on the site, was killed in a Boston Marriott on Tuesday; women offering similar services were...
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Wants info of 150M members to be market research gold mine

(Newser) -
Facebook will create one of the world’s largest market research databases in an attempt to profit from the personal information it collects from its 150 million members, the Telegraph reports. The social networking site’s new instant polling tool, which will enable companies to target specially selected users, was...
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Price wars sure to kill off some struggling e-tailers

(Newser) -
Online retailers’ response to their first dreary holiday season is a price war so fierce many won’t see the new year. Web shoppers are trained to search for deals, and 75% say they would leave a site that doesn't offer free shipping, the New York Times reports. Fine for...
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(Newser) -
Major League Baseball’s full-bore embrace of the internet is paying off for its online service, Jay Yarow writes in BusinessWeek. Most professional sports leagues limit web content for fear of encroaching on TV ratings, but MLB’s Advanced Media allows streaming video of full games, downloadable highlights from every...
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Murder posts up as drug war accelerates

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Mexican authorities are investigating a slew of online ads offering the services of a professional killer. The ads may be fake, but police are taking no chances. A recent outbreak of hitmen amidst a raging drug war has contributed to the more than 1,400 murders in Mexico this year,...
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Microsoft CEO once vowed to 'kill Google'

(Newser) -
Microsoft's Yahoo bid put CEO Steve Ballmer to the test: How much would he pay to fulfill his promise to "(expletive) kill Google"? Forty-seven billion bucks was too high, but many say he'll try again—and may have a tough time convincing investors it's all cool calculation. Microsoft...
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Owner of platforms from newspapers to TV targets Web revenue

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Media outfit Cox is moving into the online business, buying an Internet startup that pools sites’ specialized ad needs, the AP reports. The $300 million purchase of Adify will mean competition for Web giants such as Google and Yahoo, creating an alternative for customers who might previously have relied on...
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